TODAY

• Recap from last week

• International Law and Human Rights
• Individual Task
• Immigration rights
International Law and Human Rights
International
Law
• A set rules, agreements and
treaties that are binding
between states

• Horizontal in nature because

states are (in theory) equal
• Domestic law is “vertical”
because the state
enforces it

• It is up to countries to keep to
agreements
International
Court of Justice
(ICJ)
• Established in 1946, one of the six
institutions of the UN

• ICJ is the UN’s only permanent court

available to states that want to settle
disputes peacefully

• ICJ has two functions: 1) settle

disputes between states; 2) provide
advice to UN General Assembly, the
Security Council and other UN
agencies
ICJ continued…
• ICJ’s ability to settle disputes is limited by state sovereignty – states always
have to consent to their disputes being brought to the court
• States must voluntarily submit a dispute to the court - a state cannot be forced to settle
a dispute at the ICJ
• This is because states are sovereign entities

• Once a dispute has been brought to the ICJ, submission of written arguments
are made and then arguments are presented orally

• When the ICJ issues a judgement, it is binding – states have a legal obligation
to comply
ICJ – Why Comply?
• Although there is no international police to enforce these judgements, they
are usually respected or complied with – so why do you think states comply?
• One reason is that prior consent tends to result in states accepting the
rulings
• But there are various factors that affect compliance (Jones 2012)
1. External political influence – pressure from the “international community”,
involvement of international organisations and reputation costs
2. Genuine need for a definitive solution – shared need for resolution, close relations
and avoidance of conflict
3. Substance of judgements – ambiguous judgements may see more resistance, but
those entailing compromise tend to result in compliance
4. Internal political influence – opposition to compliance may affect government
decisions
Heather Jones (2012). Why Comply? An Analysis in Trends in Compliance with Judgmeents of the International Court of Justice since Nicaragua. Chicago-Kent
Journal of International and Comparative Law 12:1, pp. 57-98.
Human Rights
• Human rights – what we consider to have as human beings

• Human Rights is a relatively recent concept – post-WW2

• Tension between state sovereignty human rights – are they

fundamentally opposed?
Human rights

Negative freedom (“freedom from…”)

• Free from constraints

Positive freedom (“freedom to…”)

• Free to actively shape your life
 Human rights Citizen’s rights
• Universal • Dependent on citizenship
• Life, liberty and security • Form associations and
• Education and work demonstrate
• Choose an occupation
• Peace

Fundamental Rights
Three Generations of Rights - Karel Vasak, 1977

“First Generation” - Protective rights ”Second Generation” - Equality rights “Third Generation” – Development
Freedom from state interference with State protection rights
individual liberties • Right to employment State safeguards
• Right to life • Right to food • Right to self-determination
• Equality before law • Right to housing • Right to natural resources
• Freedom of speech • Right to health care • Right to healthy environment
• Freedom of religion • Right to social security • Right to communicate
• Right to vote • Right to sustainability

Karel Vasak. Human Rights: A Thirty-Year Struggle: the Sustained Efforts to give Force of law to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  UNESCO Courier 30:11, pp. 29-32.
History of Human Rights
• Rights are part of all configurations of political authority

• General and universal human rights are relatively new - creation of

the post-WW2 world
• Recognition that humans are essential equal and have the same rights
UN Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
• Adopted by the UN General Assembly 1948

• Received widespread support – at least in theory!

Geneva
Conventions
(1949)

• Four treaties, establishing

standards of international law for
humanitarian treatment in war
• Set protocols for humane
treatment of wounded or
captured military personnel,
medical personnel and non-
military civilians
Human Rights
and
Decolonisation
• Emergence of international human rights
after 1945 was not only a Western
creation - post-colonial states like Egypt,
India and Mexico played a crucial role

• In decades after WW2, all of Europe’s

remaining empires collapsed

• In 1945, empire was still described as a

“sacred trust”

• By 1960, the UN declared empire a

“crime”
1960 UN Declaration on the Granting of
Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples

• Article 1: ‘The subjection of

peoples to alien subjugation,
domination and exploitation
constitutes a denial of
fundamental human rights’

• Article 2: ‘All peoples have the

right to self-determination’
International Human
Rights Movement
• Amnesty International – founded in 1961
• Allowed and encouraged ordinary
members to write
• Chile, September 1973 – the dictatorship of
General Augusto Pinochet
• Brutal repression produced an
international response
• Amnesty International report on torture
• International action was strengthened by
global media and refugees
Samuel Moyn: ‘relative marginalisation’ of international law during the Cold
War, but then a growth in importance – people began to see it as a ‘mechanism
for social change’
The reign of the nation state – a block on
international law?
Decolonisation and human rights
Samuel Moyn
• Argues that human rights did not become an important part of international law in 1945
• The power of state sovereignty and “realist” (focus on state self-interest) international relations ruled

• Suggests that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was largely useless because it lacked legal force over sovereign
states – especially in the context of Cold War tensions

• Decolonisation became a key turning point – the appearance of new nations at the UN established the right to self-
determination as the first of all human rights
• International lawyers from Western countries were initially critical of this as the basis to human rights

• But the debates over self-determination and individual human rights provoked a growing interest in human rights in
international law
• International lawyers began to see in human rights a potential ability to intervene in sovereign jurisdiction, especially in newly independent
countries

• The 1970s saw a sudden and major growth in the interest in human rights among international lawyers
• The ‘public climate’ and attempts to reclaim human rights from anticolonialism pushed human rights as a priority among Western
international lawyers
• A rising international social movement also helped to drive the interest in human rights
Individual task

• Why did human rights become so important in the second half of

the 20th century?
• Is international law and are international human rights
enforceable?
• Do you think human rights should be important and why?
Is the right to mobility an important human
right? Why?

Do states have an obligation to humans beyond

their own borders? Why/why not?

Should assimilation be a condition for

migrants? Why/why not?
For Tomorrow/Wednesday
• Acharya, A., & Buzan, B. (2019). Chapter 5: The World after 1945: The Era
of the Cold War and Decolonisation, pp. 112-137.

• Questions to think about:

• What was the same from pre-1945 and after? What was different?
• What was the Cold War?
• What does ‘bipolarity’ mean? Why do Acharya and Buzan say that bipolarity
doesn’t tell the whole story of the Cold War?
• How were the core and the periphery transformed following the Second World
War?
• Why was China an ‘enigmatic outsider’?